This is longtime Cato Daily podcast host, Caleb Brown. I've moved on to head the Kentucky's

Bluegrass Institute, but I wanted to leave listeners with some favorite episodes over the last

nearly 18 years of my hosting tenure. I tried to pick episodes that are relevant to our current

moment. Thank you for listening.

This is the Cato Daily podcast for Wednesday, May 18, 2011.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Marriage equality is a constitutional issue, a federal issue.

According to Attorney David Boyes, equal protections enshrined in the 14th Amendment demands marriage equality now.

We spoke about the case of

Perry v. Schwarzenegger at a Cato Institute forum on the subject held today. Given the standard

libertarian argument that the government ought to get out of the business of marriage altogether,

failing that, why not leave this in the hands of states? Why not let federalism

help us establish what should and should not be when it comes to marriage?

I think primarily because the Equal Protection Clause and the due process clause are part

of the national constitution.

The whole point of passing the 14th Amendment was that there were certain constitutional

standards that ought to apply to all of the states.

And that when you were talking about fundamental rights like the right to marry, that was

something that you needed to have protection for people in every

state. 14 times, I think, 14 or 18 times since 1988. The United States Supreme Court

has held that marriage is a fundamental right. It is a right that is inherent in the right to liberty,

to association, to due process, equal protection. Those are national rights. You don't want to put

...